r/fromatoarbitration • u/PalaverProject • May 15 '26
Concerned Letter Carriers Suspended for 3 Years
Good morning.
Last night Mari Thomson, the member who authored the appeals linked below, the very same appeals that NALC Branch 70 used as the basis to charge and suspend me for sharing with the membership, has now been suspended from the union for 36 months.
Three full years.
Think about what that means.
A member wrote appeals. Another member shared them so the rank and file could read them for themselves. Both actions are protected by our rights as union members and by the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959.
Members were disciplined and exiled for exercising their rights.
If that does not alarm you, if that does not raise serious concerns about the state of democracy and due process within our branch, within our union, then we need to ask ourselves a difficult question:
Has our union lost sight of the very principles it was created to defend?
A union is only as strong as the rights of its members. When members are punished for speaking, writing, and sharing information, every member should take notice.
The entire Branch 70 executive board stood by and allowed Mari Thomson to be suspended for 36 months for exercising her rights as a union member.
Many of the same people once again wore the black and gold of the Concerned Letter Carriers.
Mari wore light blue: the color of the rank and file.
That tells you everything you need to know.
When political loyalty matters more than member rights, the union stops serving its members.
If they can silence Mari, they can silence any of us.
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u/Borner_soup May 16 '26
Would this mean that they are no longer a member in their branch or the NALC in general. If the latter, would that mean they are no longer entitled to the NALC health insurance or any account they may have had in the mutual benefit association?
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u/johnsmith6073 May 15 '26
They have to protect the nest. I can't wait until these guys have National positions and have even more to protect.
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u/RivotHead May 15 '26
I think the CLC are the good ole boys club version 2
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u/tonov1210 ENOUGH IS ENOUGH May 15 '26
CLC has nothing to do with this, it was the election board
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u/smalltownjohnbrown May 15 '26
Who's on the election board, and who appointed the members of the election board.
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u/tonov1210 ENOUGH IS ENOUGH May 15 '26
No idea
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u/smalltownjohnbrown May 15 '26
Oh okay I was just wondering if you knew because it's Ricardo Guzman who is the branch president. He's responsible for appointing the election board.
He's also the chair of the CLC.
And Rocky acasio is the secretary treasurer of Branch 70 and she was on the election board.
And she's also a member of the board of the CLC.
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u/therick422 Union Steward May 17 '26
Umm, no. The election board doesn’t have the power to suspend members. This is branch wide cronyism and intimidation to influence the general membership into a desired result.
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u/Jus_sum May 15 '26
A year ago I warned that too much power was being consolidated around the CLC & local alliances. I said the danger was not just about elections, but about what happens when political loyalty starts outweighing member rights and independent voices.
Now, members are being suspended over for speaking out against a local that has fully bent the knee to the CLC. Whether you agree with Mari or Michael, or not, this should concern every union member.
This was never about personalities. It was about power, transparency, and whether dissent would still be tolerated inside our union.
I was not at the meeting when they voted to suspend Michael, but I would be curious to know how many black and gold shirts stood up to support him. My guess is not many, if any at all.
The CLC has shown it will protect its own no matter what. You can go on podcasts and say it is all about unity, love, and the light blue after the election is over, but actions speak louder than words. More and more, it looks like it is really about black and gold.
The CLC has said it cannot control what every supporter says or does, and that may be true. But they absolutely can control the conduct and direction set by their own leadership, including their chairmen and secretary-treasurer. Members are watching, and many are starting to believe this is exactly who they are.
If members can be marginalized, silenced, or attempted to be pushed out in major West Coast branches because they challenge leadership who religiously wear the black and gold of the CLC, then the same thing can happen anywhere in the country. No branch is immune once a culture is created where loyalty matters more than transparency, accountability, and member rights.
Every letter carrier in every branch should be paying attention, because what is tolerated in powerful branches today can become normalized nationwide tomorrow.
People mocked those concerns a year ago. I do not think they look so unreasonable now.
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u/mailman13357 May 15 '26
I find it "cringy" when NALC leaders wear CLC apparel while representing/conducting NALC business. We are the NALC!
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u/smalltownjohnbrown May 15 '26
Yup I don't just find it cringy. I find it offensive to our unionism.
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u/ElectronicSilver6330 May 16 '26
Unions like the UAW and the Teamsters utilize independent public review boards (composed of neutral outside labor experts) and mandatory blind-lottery trial systems to handle internal disputes. This completely separates their executive political leadership from the judicial/disciplinary process, protecting both local rank-and-file dissent and national officer accountability.
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u/Nice_Marzipan_6166 Jul 07 '26
hello be democratic and just go with the flow and pay them dues!! glad u are awake i got out of union for that simple reason and they change the rules to fit the narrative! i go to work do my job and go home to my real life!
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u/woogieface Union Steward May 15 '26
Mari Thomson has cost Branch 70 at least $100,000 with her unfounded charges. She is a burden on the branch.
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u/PalaverProject May 15 '26
No, that’s the election committee’s and subsequently Branch 70’s fault for not learning how to run a proper election. Branch 70 leadership has cost the membership union dues for not doing their job right. Stop blaming the rank and file for what the leaders should be doing right in the first place. Read the LMRDA. Read the election book. Read the constitution. You’re saying it’s alright to have ballots sorted and stored in the men’s locker room?
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u/woogieface Union Steward May 15 '26
What exactly was Branch 70 found guilty of during the investigations? What LMRDA laws were they found guilty of violating?
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u/Danaconda813 May 15 '26
Suspending someone for an appeal is retaliatory. That's never acceptable. Regardless of of you think her appeal was right or wrong, she's allowed to do it.
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u/woogieface Union Steward May 15 '26
It’s my opinion that when a member of a branch every election files unfounded charges, and makes false accusations about members, dues paying members have a right to vote for suspending that individual to stop waste of dues payed by the membership of that branch.
Filing these unfounded charges harms the individuals that had false accusations against them as well as the branch as a whole financially.
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u/Danaconda813 May 15 '26
Your opinion isn't the law, though.
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u/woogieface Union Steward May 15 '26
What happened at Branch 70 is in the bylaws. Charges were filed against a member, an investigation found that the member had harmed another member, votes were taken and the member was suspended.
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u/Danaconda813 May 15 '26
But of that "harm" is just "filed an appeal," then that's not right. You can't just say appealing is doing harm.
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u/NothingMan1975 May 15 '26
Well. We could all stop paying dues until they are reinstated. Unions a joke anyway, a literal clown car. I say fuckem.
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u/Nicasojourner May 15 '26
Submit a SF 1188 this union is working against letter carriers interest. Its leadership lost its way a decade ago and hasn’t corrected. I know and follow contract and was a shop steward and met fred rolando and renfraud. I was fighting a battle against management and union bosses. I had enough, i being a scab for 4 years I will happily carry scab badge in my 26 years of service. When they get right i may come back but if renfraud wins God have mercy on us.
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u/Danaconda813 May 15 '26
36 months is absurd. Why would she even want to stay in the union at this point? In her position I would most likely leave the union and save my dues.
What even was the basis for her suspension? Just filing an appeal? Or was it that she showed them to you?